Industrial control systems, such as Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems, are used to control industrial processes and production. Examples include the control of critical functions at power plants and water treatment facilities to the operation of assembly lines at food processing and vehicle assembly plants.
A particular type of industrial control system, namely that including one or more Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs), (e.g., programmable microcontrollers), is often installed in electrical power systems such as those that arise in connection with the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity or in other transport or industrial systems.
In such cases the or each IED is typically sited in an electrical substation and is arranged to measure, protect, control and monitor the electrical power system to which it or they are connected.